Along the Eastern Wall of the East Harlem Art Park, Kathleen Granados, Present Histories: An East Harlem Photo Album

The Marcus Garvey Park Alliance Public Art Initiative is pleased to announce the unveiling of the next Art in the Parks: Active Open Space site-specific installation Present Histories: An East Harlem Photo Album by the artist Kathleen Granados.

rendering of exterior view courtesy of Shake Shack located at 1 West 125th Street, corner of Fifth Ave

Construction on 1 West 125th Street is underway, preparing for the arrival of Shake Shack, moving into the old Applebee’s space on the north/west corner of Fifth Avenue, across from the National Black Theatre ~ and at the entrance to East Harlem, which is preparing for a number of new projects including the Second Avenue Subway.

Connie Lee, President of the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance/ Public Art Initiative, and Commissioner Mitchel Silver on a walk-through of Marcus Garvey Park

Mitchell J. Silver, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, along with William T. Castro, Manhattan Borough Commissioner, NYC Parks Department, met with Connie Lee, President of the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, several members of her Board, and Friends of Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, for a tour of Marcus Garvey Park in East Harlem today.

August is a spectacular mix of new and currently on view art installations, exhibits and events, including outdoor art, music and performances. Here are 45 to add to your list, beginning on August 1st and taking you through the month.

Installation view of Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft & CarePhoto by Jenna Bascom. Courtesy of the Museum of Arts and Design

Positioning photographic documentation, radio broadcasts, ephemera, data, and an installation generated by the project, AMBOS, as well as seven other projects from Aguiñiga’s ongoing design and artistic practice, Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft & Care at MAD demonstrates the link that the artist is forging between design thinking and community work. “Design thinking,” which refers to the creative strategies for problem solving, is situated here as something inherent to craft—a vehicle utilized by Aguiñiga for self-care and community building. And the work the artist has been doing near the Tijuana border crossing is timely, indeed.

Ziemia is an art installation that sits in a garden filled with native plants in Msgr. McGolrick Park, Brooklyn. Translated from Polish, Ziemia means ‘Earth” ~ and the beautiful story behind its creation is told below.

UN Environment and Yale University, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, unveiled a new eco-housing module in an effort to spark public discussion and new ideas on how sustainable design can provide decent, affordable housing, and at the same time, limit the overuse of natural resources and climate change. The 22-square-meter structure (about 237 square-feet), known as “Tiny House” was on view at the United Nations Plaza.

Taking place on the first three Saturdays in August, between the hours of 7:00am to 1:00pm, Park Avenue from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, will be closed to traffic, allowing nearly 300,000 people to enjoy the annual event ~ Summer Streets 2018. This year’s theme ~ “Finding joy in unexpected moments,” and the schedule of events is out!

On July 13, 2018 a GoFundMe page went online created by Didier Jimenez-Castro, who describes himself as an activist from Hillsborough, New Jersey. Jimenez-Castro worked closely with Jim Girvan, the Chair of the Branchburg Democratic Party, and founder of the People’s Motorcade ~ a local grassroots group that holds protests on the road between Trump’s golf course and Bedminster’s Clarence Dillon Public Library, referred to as the “free speech zone” every Saturday in the spring and summer months.

Expanding beyond their Lower East Side borders, we followed The 100 Gates Project to Staten Island where they brought local artists together with local businesses.

They began in Downtown Staten Island, including the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Stapleton, and Clifton, weaving through Bay Street, Van Duzer and Victory Boulevard ~ and moved on to the North Shore Expansion.

Below are a few of the colorful gates that are part of the 100 Gates Project ~ Staten Island, painted in coordination with each local artist and business owner. We will continue to add gates, as they are brought to our attention.

*All images courtesy of #100GatesProject and the artists. Check out the interactive Google Map for gates painted in East Harlem, Lower East Side and Staten Island.

Essie Green Galleries will open its doors on July 21st to the new exhibition, ‘Black Art is Now Many Treasures.’ Some of the work on view, taken from the gallery’s vast collection, will be by renowned artists, Charles Ethan Porter, John Wesley Hardrick, Norman Lewis, Charles Alston, and Romare Bearden.

The non-profit group, Artolution and the students at PS 751 & Harvey Milk High School came together to create an incredible mural capturing their diversity and individuality. We were thrilled to come across it, and wanted to share a few pictures we took today.

We joined Carey King of Uptown Grand Central and Ayana Hosted of 100 Gates Project in East Harlem for an Old School Jam~ Street Art Edition, along with a Tour of some of the Gates in the !00 Gates Project, including a live paint! Below, a few pictures of the day.

City Park’s Summer Stage 2018 is the City’s largest free outdoor performing arts festival, bringing more than 100 performances to 18 neighborhood parks across all five boroughs from May to October. All free and open to the public. Here’s what’s on tap in August including the film, Milford Graves Full Mantis at The Maysles Cinema as part of The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival.

The renowned French artist JR, who has captured the faces of immigrants so vividly throughout the world, couldn’t be having a solo exhibition in NYC at a better time ~ with hundreds of immigrant children, taken from their parents at our borders, arriving in East Harlem this month. This week, Perrotin NYC presents the exhibition ~ JR.

We needed a featured image, so ~ here are some books already written, yet to be read

Best said by Storefront for Art and Architecture in a recent press release, the first edition of the New York Architecture Book Fair, Storefront for Art and Architecture presents Architecture Books – Yet to be Written, an installation that invites us to reflect upon the cultural contribution of architecture through the medium of the book from 1982 to today. With an archeological and projective twist, the project seeks to celebrate and evaluate both the existing and the missing volumes of a history still in the writing.

The Art Students League of New York will exhibit works by recent graduates and alumni in a new exhibition entitled ‘Final Project Exhibition 2018.’ The group exhibition will include painting, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media.

We’ve been following the Downtown ‘Mural Project‘ in and around the 2WTC and 3WTC construction lots, now surrounded by a number of gorgeous new murals. With the Oculus in the background, the large-scale mural project takes viewers from Vesey and Greenwich Streets, down Church and Dey Streets to Cortlandt Street.